Dr. Walter Willett is a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health for 25 years.
Dr. Willett was born in Hart, Michigan, and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, studied food science at Michigan State University, and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School before obtaining a doctorate in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Willett has focused much of his work over the last 35 years on the development of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods starting in 1980 in the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow–up Study. Together, these cohorts that include nearly 300,000 men and women with repeated dietary assessments are providing the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of food choices.
Dr. Willett has published over 1,800 articles, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for heart disease and cancer, and has written the textbook, “Nutritional Epidemiology,” published by Oxford University Press. He also has four books for the general public, “Eat, Drink and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating,” just recently revised and released, “Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less,” co-authored with Mollie Katzen, “The Fertility Diet,” co-authored with Jorge Chavarro and Pat Skerrett and “Thinfluence,” co-authored with Malissa Wood and Dan Childs. Dr. Willett is among the top three most cited persons in all areas of science. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the recipient of many national and international awards for his research.